Help - Accounts and Subscriptions

[Turtor]

Hey,

first of all, I like Spotify, the way it works, the way it is handled by the support (quick and without any troubles). I tried Premium, like and use the Spotify App. A few days back I returned to free, but 10€ are ready on PayPal to be thrown in.

The potential of Spotify is amazing.

What I don't like is the way you handle the "free version". When I first heard about Spotify I thought its either:

Your favorite Songs + Commercials via audio or on the interface, like a radio.

Or 10€ and hearing whatever you want whenever you want.

Under these conditions I started with spotify.

Now I hear about the "free version" restrictions, which werent made public on Austria's startoff.

10 hours a month? With some complicated "take hours to the next week" system? A limit of hearing a song?

Seriously. A limit of 5 times to hear a song?

I personally didn't hit any of these restrictions yet. But alone the imagination that my whole playlists become useless, as soon as I stop paying, makes me think about cancelling the complete usage of Spotify.

Spotify is an internet tool. Internet tools are used by a younger generation. You very well know that your competition is not CDs, DVD sales, or other stream services similar to Spotify.

Your competition is a whole generation, which knows how to organise music for free.

Of course you can hope for contend industy to win the battle and cripple the whole internet into a china like version. But when I see whole partys (pirats) arising out of nowhere, just to defend their digital rights, then I know:

In the end contend industry will have to adapt to the new, 21th century copyrights.

In 10 years. There will be no ACTA. There will be freedom of internet guaranteed in all europe's constitutions.

Be a leader into this new century, and no defender of ancient, antiquated ways of thinking.

And listening to my own feelings: the disprofit of chasing away users due to this "free version" will be a lot higher than short-term benefet of a few extra-paying customers.

Thats my opinion at least.

I know for myself, once I play my music and am no longer able to hear a song because of either of these restrictions, will probably be the moment I uninstall the programm. The probability for that is 90%. On the other side, as long as Spotify is installed on my laptop, it can happen any day that I head over 10€ for premium. Maybe not each month, but occasionally at least.

Regards.

[Sam]

Turtor - Thanks for the detailed post. Really interesting. Just to clarify, the 5 song cap was lifted recently in all markets (except the UK and France). This was announced on our blog, and in the Community here: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Announcements/Spotify-Free-Changes-5-Play-Limit/td-p/32029

These restrictions were put in place so we could offer the free service in the long run. We'd love it to be totally restriction free, but we just can't offer it at this moment in time.

[Turtor]

Well, its good to see things going into the right direction. Thanks for the quick reply.

[Turtor]

So I've had Premium and liked it, but it ran out a few days ago and (also due to few bank methods) I didnt feel like uploading money to disliked paypal.

Yesterday in the evening I read about spotify having a new spotify android app. I upgraded mine.

Just to find out that my old playlists can no longer be played.

Today I listened to my music on my laptop over the day, like a radio, to be surprised by a strange message:

"You've used up 6 of your 10 free hours for this month."

So if I let it run the evening today, I can no longer use spotify for a whole month?

You gave good support so far, I don't want to flame or bother you with worthless criticism. But what can I say?

You force me (or are forced to force me to, by the annoying rights distributors) to listen to no music for a whole month, if I dont pay?

That means: there is no "free spotify". I am willing to switch to Premium every now and then, to upgrade my mobile phone with the newest playlists I created, higher sound quality and no advertisment. But I will definitely not pay 120€ a year. Thats buying 10 music DVDs/CDs a year. Thats even more expensive than ever before and no improvement.

Is this going to be standard in spotify? Or will this rule be removed within the near future?

I don't like "blackmailing" with "do this or that, or I leave!". But I don't see myself continuing spotify that way.

Nothing personal.

[Sam]

Hi Turtor,

Nice to hear from you again. Once you've had the account for six months, a monthly time limit will be applied to the account.

As I mentioned before, these restrictions really aren't something we wanted to enforce.

You can read more about the restrictions here: http://www.spotify.com/help/faq/account/

[Tianshi1988]

Oh wow.... I just found out about these ristrictions by this post.

Back in I think 2008 it hadn't been like this. Spotify was only available in Sweden and France and there been no ristrictions like that.  This is total *****

Sorry to say but - all the time when I adviced friends to use spotify I've come to regret now, cause a lot of them will face same problem as me now and this really just isn't the way to get happy customers.